Saturday, August 9, 2008

In-Progress At The Glen: Sprint Cup Practice (1:30PM ESPN2)

Noon brings another one of the recently-added Sprint Cup practice sessions being shown on SPEED. Originally, this action was not scheduled to be on TV and only "Happy Hour" was going to be covered. ESPN2 will follow with that coverage.

It will be Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds calling the action on SPEED. Joining them as reporters from the garage will be Bob Dillner and Wendy Venturini.

ESPN2 will handle the final practice session after SPEED is done at 1:30PM ET. Dr. Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will be joined by the four ESPN pit reporters.

One interesting note is that ESPN commentator Boris Said has been added to the Sprint Cup field. Despite missing the race in his own car because qualifying was rained out, Said is going to step into the #45 car and replace Kyle Petty. More details of this switch will be coming during the SPEED and ESPN coverage.

"Happy Hour" coverage will run ESPN right into their ABC coverage of the Nationwide Series race. That will be reflected as a new post.

Feel free to add your comments about these two practice sessions on SPEED and ESPN2. Just click on the COMMENTS button below. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for stopping by.

22 comments:

I'm glad Boris got a ride. Now we get to see his feet on camera LOL.I did like the fact that he "cleared" it w/Ford, and mentioned all his car sponsors so they got pub even tho they won't be on the track.

JD why are these guys not in the booth for all these practices? Does it mean they have to watch all of practice from the monitors and then comment? It sort of makes it difficult for them to pick up on things.

Not quite following scheduling strategy with this. The first practice session today was from 12:00 to 12:45p.m., which would've fit nicely into a 12:00 to 1:00p.m. window for television. Yet, Speed is going with a 12:00 to 1:30 window. All I can think of is they didn't want a gap in the coverage today.

Six minutes into the joined-in-progress broadcast of Happy Hour and ESPN is already covering up the on-track action with a video package of last year's race and shoving full-screen stat display after full-screen stat display down our throats.

The Fox Cup production truck, the TNT Cup production truck, the Speed Truck production truck, and whatever group of people handled today's Speed Cup practice coverage all understand how to televise qualifying and practice sessions. Quite simply they keep the cameras and talk focused on what is going on live ON THE TRACK.

This ESPN production truck is the only one that struggles to accomplish the simple task of covering the session they are paid to cover on that day. These individuals are wasting the money ESPN paid for the rights to these sessions and they are wasting the time of every NASCAR fan that is watching because they actually care about practice and qualifying (very few casual sports fans are watching these shows I would assume).

NASCAR, please step in and get rid of ESPN when it comes to their "coverage" of practice and qualifying sessions.

JD I thought I was off for thinking the exact thing. He did seem upset about it. Yikes.

stricklinfan82 said... Six minutes into the joined-in-progress broadcast of Happy Hour and ESPN is already covering up the on-track action with a video package of last year's race and shoving full-screen stat display after full-screen stat display down our throats--

Yes the production truck has failed us & ESPN miserably ---These individuals are wasting the money ESPN paid for the rights to these sessions and they are wasting the time of every NASCAR fan that is watching because they actually care about practice and qualifying (very few casual sports fans are watching these shows I would assume).--Great points! Casual fans do not watch quals & barely "watch" the race, I had some watching with me a few races ago. They don't care about it like we do.I never gave the wasting money angle much thought till you brought it up. If lousy production of practice & quals drive away fans ratings will drop, ad sales prices fall & they really lose money. This would under normal circumstances cause a change.Hopefully it will here too